Microsoft is scheduled to complete Windows 10 this week, before July 10th, as the company gets ready to launch the new operating system later this month. According to sources familiar to the plan, the software giant is finalizing Windows 10 and the release to manufacturing (RTM) build is expected to roll out to partners later on the week.
While a number of Windows 10 RTM candidate builds have already been spotted online, the company has yet to decide which build will be consider the final copy and the one that will release to partners to start getting devices ready for July 29th.
For those unfamiliar, RTM simply means a version of Windows 10 that Microsoft is confident it is stable and doesn’t contain any significant bugs. However, it will be far from complete and many features will be missing, as the company is offering the operating system as a service or WaaS (Windows as a Service).
Moving forward there will never be a finalized version of Windows anymore, or how Microsoft’s Terry Myerson said “we will never be done” as the operating system will continue to receive new updates as they become available — no more big releases –. This means that this time “release to manufacturing” is just another minor milestone, where the software maker hands over a stable version of Windows 10 to companies to install on new computers.
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Microsoft is already planning to introduce new features later this fall, including extensions support for Microsoft Edge and a number of new built-in apps. The company is also working on the next big update, which we know as a “Redstone”, and it’ll release sometime next year.
According to WinBeta, Windows 10 build 10176 from the “th1” branch is one of the candidates to be signed off as RTM. The exact build number is 10.0.10176.16384.th1.150705-0552, but we will have to wait a little longer to get confirmation from the company to see which build actually becomes the official Windows 10 RTM.
Windows 10 will finally become available on July 29th, the company will first roll out the upgrade to Windows Insiders, and those users who reserved a free copy of the software will start being notified to upgrade if their computer passed the compatibility check. Enterprise and education customers with volume licensing agreements will be able to download the ISO files of Windows 10 on August 1st.
It’s been a long ride for Microsoft and for users as well, as there is a big community of Windows Insiders who also helped to make this version of the operating system, and now the wait is almost over. The company will be completing Windows 10 this week, but the work will continue, as such expect new updates to release constantly.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].